A few weeks ago I saw a short video clip of Jay-Z and he shared some gold, which has made him a multi-millionaire. He talked about his concern with ownership. Owning his publishing and all the rights to his music. Chance the Rapper shared some of that same advice on social media a little while back. Ruslan talked about it in his song ‘Indie Jones’. He talked about how labels wanted major shares of ownership an he decided to stay own his own so he could own his music outright. This isn’t just an issue in music, but in other areas of business as well. I want to share a couple of ideas when it comes to ownership.

All the richest people in the world made it that way because they have ownership. Most of them have ownership in multiple markets. That is why investments are so important. I once heard a mom tell her son if he wanted to own a pair of Jordans then he needs to own a piece of the company. So with some birthday money he bought stock in Nike. Now anytime he buys a pair of Jordans he is growing his own investment. Investing is also a biblical principle. Just look at the parables of the talents (money). Even if you can’t own 100% of something, go out and own a piece of it.

Another form of ownership is online. When you create a business, community, or anything that exists online you should never build that exclusively on another platform that you don’t own . If you solely depend on FB to build and grow your business, you become dependent on something that you have absolutely no control over. Think of FB, Instagram, Pinterest, as tools. You really need to own your own website. Make that your home base for all things relating to your company. No people don’t necessarily visit websites anywhere near as music as social media platforms, but if FB changes policies or just decided to stop doing what they are doing, that could be the death of your business and you don’t want that. Having a website is in a way, owning your own digital real estate.

One last thing I want to mention is owning your own content or ideas. If you have a website or platform make sure you are posting original content. It is hard to build a brand or platform solely on reposting other peoples content. That may work for Spotify playlist, but it is harder to pull off with other types of content in a way to monetize it. A lot of people use their platforms to give reviews, ideas, even sometimes just thought provoking questions. This is where being an expert in an area is important. The good news is that if you know just 20% more than the average person in a field, you are considered and expert. So go and own your thoughts and ideas.

I believe each of us needs to have more ownership in any or all of these areas. Lets go out and own something.